Water is the most valuable commodity on planet earth. We came from water and it surrounded us in the womb. You can forget gold, silver, platinum or uranium. These are not needed to survive, but we need water.

I love watching cricket and was strangely surprised to find that during the Sky coverage of England’s last test match against South Africa the presenters were giving away refillable water bottles to highlight the pollution of the oceans by the disposable plastic variety. I have been using a refillable bottle which I first acquired about five years ago during the last days of my field hockey playing days and have been filling it with tap water and taking it with me while walking or on car journey’s ever since.

I see no reason for buying water while it is readily available on tap. Where I am living now the tap water is unsuitable to drink as it does not come directly from the mains and is probably held in a tank, which is not fully protected from the outside, so I boil my drinking water in an electric kettle and use it to fill my bottle once it has cooled. I am unsure whether it tastes as good as fresh tap water but it does the job in that it quenches my thirst and I know that it is safe.

Plastic bottled water often contains pictures of cool, mountain streams but is it safe? And does it taste much different? The problem highlighted by the TV channel is the damage the bottle does to the environment once it is discarded. It is true that many other plastics also pollute the oceans but there is really no need to add to them by spending money on something that is not really necessary.